


The Boy with the Bread

by HPfanonezillion



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Help, Saviour, friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4077307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPfanonezillion/pseuds/HPfanonezillion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A kind stranger left a basket of rolls by the Everdeens' door and Katniss thinks she knows who.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy with the Bread

It’s been a few weeks since Peeta threw that bread out to me that day. Since then I have been able to scrape together enough to feed Prim at least. I get a bite or two here and there, but I make sure she has what she needs before me. She’s more important. I try to get Mother to take a bite or two, but she won’t. I always give Prim her portion as soon as she leaves the table, even though my sister asks if I’m hungry.

“I ate a little bit while I was cooking.” I tell her.

And she goes back to her meal. She knows it’s a lie, but gave up fighting me a while ago.

I wake up to find a roll by my head one morning and see Prim and Mother are already munching on rolls of their own. There’s an entire basket of them.

“Where did these come from?” I ask.

Mother shrugs.

Prim says, “They were in front of the door when I went out to milk Lady.”

I pick up the roll and bring it to my nose. I breathe in deeply and smell the yeasty scent, so foreign. I take a bite and let the fluffiness hang on my tongue before I chew and swallow. “Fresh.” I sigh.

Prim nods and I see a real smile on her face for the first time in a long time. I kiss her temple and hug her close before I step away and finish my roll. I want another, but I don’t know if there will be any more, so I hold off. I can take one for lunch today. The first lunch I’ll have had since Daddy died and the money ran out.

Prim and I dress for school and kiss Mother on the cheek before we head out. I see the Hawthorne boys bounding ahead. Gale, the oldest, is trying his best to police his brothers. He looks tired. Mother helped deliver his baby sister last month so he must have to keep his brothers occupied as well as help with the baby.

I sit under a tree at the lunch break and unwrap my roll. My stomach rumbled through my morning lessons and I was tempted to take out the roll then. But I refrained. There was only the one roll and if I ate it too soon, I’d have to wait all afternoon for another.

So I savor every bite of the pastry and watch Prim with her friends. I insisted she bring two rolls with her even gave her the last of the cheese we had from Lady. We’ll have to make more. I see she’s sharing the food with her friends and it warms my heart, but also worries me. Has she gotten enough herself?

I am so focused on Prim that I don’t notice the shadow at first. When I do, it’s gone almost as quickly. But in its place is a small package. I open it and find half of a sandwich. An actual sandwich with meat and cheese. I pull the bread back and see it has a smear of mustard on one side.

No one is around that obviously would have left the food. But then I see the blonde hair of the boy walking away quickly. He looks over his shoulder at me as he pauses at the front door of the school. Peeta Mellark. He smiles and disappears inside.

I hurry after him, needing to know if it was him. I am sure it is, but I want to thank him. He’s saved me a second time today. I suspect it was him that brought the rolls to my house this morning. But when I get to the door it is time for the afternoon lessons to start and the rest of the students stream inside.

I don’t get sight of him for the rest of the day. When I get home, I eat another roll and relax. I never ate the sandwich. I give it to Prim for dinner that night and I eat another roll.

The next morning there is another basket by our door.

**Author's Note:**

> I was having a conversation with my friend about the importance of Peeta being the Boy with the Bread and wondering if that was the only time or if it happened other times. So I wrote this drabble imagining that.
> 
> I'm booksrockmyface on Tumblr.


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